During an international healthcare crisis, the demand for healthcare workers, from doctors and nurses to lab techs and EMTs, far exceeds the supply. Before the onset of COVID 19, we had an aging population, which was causing a continuous rise in the need for adaptable types of care and staff. Over the last several years, healthcare systems have shown an increased demand for innovative ways to reach and assess their patients — either in the home, at the hospital, or through virtual means. What’s more, this increased demand is happening while the most experienced workers are retiring. Add a pandemic to the existing supply deficiency, and the healthcare worker shortage becomes an emergency itself; the need for speedy healthcare recruitment is greater than we’ve seen in decades.
Now that technology plays a key role in how hospitals reach and assess their patients (and even more so when we are practicing social distancing), the industry has a uniquely competitive labor market. Employers need to find the talent to deliver patient care and deliver the innovative technology solutions needed at the point of care. Healthcare companies across the country are looking for ways to compete to attract top talent. Naturally, this includes conducting the necessary, but challenging, employer branding projects, strategic initiatives, retention efforts, and diversity training to make their organization more appealing to prospects.
#COVID19 has put a strain on an already competitive labor market: healthcare. Here’s @IQTalent’s take on how the industry should manage outsourced #healthcarerecruiting.Click to TweetHowever, after taking the effort to promote their brand better, many healthcare companies are still running into the same problems because they don’t have the recruiting and hiring resources with the specialized expertise to fill all their needs. This void creates a demand for healthcare companies to seek support from external healthcare staffing and recruiting companies. Often, these companies have a brand, strategy, and culture that are not aligned with their internal branding, thus leading to decreased ROI on their efforts to attract top talent and an inherent conflict of interest.
Healthcare staffing and recruiting agencies are in business to turn a profit. Healthcare companies and hospitals need to find and hire the most qualified candidates and find them quickly. Sometimes, these two strategic visions can work hand in hand. But other times, inherent conflicts exist.
1. Employer Branding
RPOs and external healthcare staffing firms have their specific employer brand, culture, and strategy. Agency account managers often rely on multiple, more junior, recruiters who provide inconsistent brand messaging and candidate experience, causing a decreased return on your company’s efforts to attract and retain top talent.
If you don’t have the most qualified healthcare workers available, particularly in a crisis, you’ve hampered your ability to provide the level of care and technological innovation your patients demand.
2. Profits and Fees
Many healthcare staffing firms charge on a per hire basis. Charging per hire creates an alignment disparity between the company’s and vendor’s objectives for hiring a candidate. Given their business model, staffing vendors must take a “hire-first” approach to recruit as opposed to the “candidate-first” approach you must take as you build your recruiting efforts around relevant experience, cultural fit, diversity, and internal equity. If it negatively impacts an agency’s bottom-line when you decide not to hire a candidate, it creates a conflict where you’re pushed to hire less qualified candidates. At the same time, your staffing vendor shifts their recruitment efforts on the requisitions, which produce the fastest hires — once again, hampering your ability to improve your quality of care and innovation.
3. External Quotas
Many healthcare staffing firms enforce quotas that force recruiters to submit and hire a specific number of candidates within a specific amount of time. These efforts can lead to extreme recruiting tactics where top candidates are being oversold on the position while unqualified candidates are oversold on their ability to deliver in the role. This strategy results in hiring managers who must spend time reviewing unqualified candidates and interviewing candidates that were misinformed about the position.
#Healthcare has a uniquely competitive labor market. Here’s why an @IQTalent partnership is specifically equipped for the challenge.Click to Tweet4. Rigid Contracts
Often, RPOs or other external healthcare staffing and recruiting agencies have retainer agreements in place that last for months or longer. If the client realizes the vendor is not the right fit for their recruiting team, there may be a costly exit fee or worse — the client can’t get out of the contract until the termination date. How do you enter into a long-term agreement before you know if the vendor will be the right fit for your internal recruiting and hiring managers?
Another Way
Fortunately, there is another way. The on-demand healthcare recruitment model created by IQTalent Partners is changing the entire industry. This business model cuts out all these conflicts of interest, so customers are confident they have a partner with their best interests in mind.
Clients are provided the “on-demand” capacity to extend your internal recruiting operations with Talent Acquisition Experts. They become ingrained in your culture, know the personalities most conducive to your team, understand and promote your brand messaging, and ensure alignment with all of your strategic hiring initiatives.
The client defines success. Your deliverables are our deliverables, so the partner Talent Acquisition Experts work with you to develop KPIs, quotas, timelines, and expectations resulting in complete alignment and transparency in the recruitment process.
The charge per hire approach is removed. With a professional service, billable hours fee structure, IQTP’s non-commissioned Talent Acquisition Experts can focus on finding the best all-around candidate not only to care for your patients or drive innovation but to grow with the company and provide long term stability in the role. All at a fraction of the cost!
Ready to learn more? IQTalent Partners leads clients to better and brighter innovations in the healthcare industry by sourcing and hiring interested top talent. Contact us today to find out how!
